diff --git a/parquet-hadoop/src/main/java/parquet/hadoop/ParquetFileWriter.java b/parquet-hadoop/src/main/java/parquet/hadoop/ParquetFileWriter.java
index 42d91a4a68..c2d472e566 100644
--- a/parquet-hadoop/src/main/java/parquet/hadoop/ParquetFileWriter.java
+++ b/parquet-hadoop/src/main/java/parquet/hadoop/ParquetFileWriter.java
@@ -66,6 +66,10 @@ public class ParquetFileWriter {
   public static final byte[] MAGIC = "PAR1".getBytes(Charset.forName("ASCII"));
   public static final int CURRENT_VERSION = 1;
 
+  // File creation modes
+  public static final int CREATE = 0;
+  public static final int OVERWRITE = 1;
+
   private static final ParquetMetadataConverter metadataConverter = new ParquetMetadataConverter();
 
   private final MessageType schema;
@@ -141,17 +145,29 @@ private final STATE error() throws IOException {
   private STATE state = STATE.NOT_STARTED;
 
   /**
-   *
+   * @param configuration Hadoop configuration
    * @param schema the schema of the data
-   * @param out the file to write to
-   * @param codec the codec to use to compress blocks
-   * @throws IOException if the file can not be created
+   * @param path the file to write to
+   * @throws IOException if the file cannot be created
    */
   public ParquetFileWriter(Configuration configuration, MessageType schema, Path file) throws IOException {
+    this(configuration, schema, file, CREATE);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @param configuration Hadoop configuration
+   * @param schema the schema of the data
+   * @param path the file to write to
+   * @param mode file creation mode
+   * @throws IOException if the file cannot be created
+   */
+  public ParquetFileWriter(Configuration configuration, MessageType schema,
+      Path file, int mode) throws IOException {
     super();
     this.schema = schema;
     FileSystem fs = file.getFileSystem(configuration);
-    this.out = fs.create(file, false);
+    boolean overwriteFlag = (mode == OVERWRITE);
+    this.out = fs.create(file, overwriteFlag);
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/parquet-hadoop/src/main/java/parquet/hadoop/ParquetWriter.java b/parquet-hadoop/src/main/java/parquet/hadoop/ParquetWriter.java
index 41f27ed882..9fc4b5b746 100644
--- a/parquet-hadoop/src/main/java/parquet/hadoop/ParquetWriter.java
+++ b/parquet-hadoop/src/main/java/parquet/hadoop/ParquetWriter.java
@@ -169,11 +169,44 @@ public ParquetWriter(
       boolean validating,
       WriterVersion writerVersion,
       Configuration conf) throws IOException {
+    this(file, ParquetFileWriter.CREATE, writeSupport, compressionCodecName,
+        blockSize, pageSize, dictionaryPageSize, enableDictionary,
+        validating, writerVersion, conf);
+  }
+  /**
+   * Create a new ParquetWriter.
+   *
+   * @param file the file to create
+   * @param mode file creation mode
+   * @param writeSupport the implementation to write a record to a RecordConsumer
+   * @param compressionCodecName the compression codec to use
+   * @param blockSize the block size threshold
+   * @param pageSize the page size threshold
+   * @param dictionaryPageSize the page size threshold for the dictionary pages
+   * @param enableDictionary to turn dictionary encoding on
+   * @param validating to turn on validation using the schema
+   * @param writerVersion version of parquetWriter from {@link ParquetProperties.WriterVersion}
+   * @param conf Hadoop configuration to use while accessing the filesystem
+   * @throws IOException
+   */
+  public ParquetWriter(
+      Path file,
+      int mode,
+      WriteSupport<T> writeSupport,
+      CompressionCodecName compressionCodecName,
+      int blockSize,
+      int pageSize,
+      int dictionaryPageSize,
+      boolean enableDictionary,
+      boolean validating,
+      WriterVersion writerVersion,
+      Configuration conf) throws IOException {
 
     WriteSupport.WriteContext writeContext = writeSupport.init(conf);
     MessageType schema = writeContext.getSchema();
 
-    ParquetFileWriter fileWriter = new ParquetFileWriter(conf, schema, file);
+    ParquetFileWriter fileWriter = new ParquetFileWriter(conf, schema, file,
+        mode);
     fileWriter.start();
 
     CodecFactory codecFactory = new CodecFactory(conf);
diff --git a/parquet-hadoop/src/test/java/parquet/hadoop/TestParquetFileWriter.java b/parquet-hadoop/src/test/java/parquet/hadoop/TestParquetFileWriter.java
index 1d45469cc8..19f397c44c 100644
--- a/parquet-hadoop/src/test/java/parquet/hadoop/TestParquetFileWriter.java
+++ b/parquet-hadoop/src/test/java/parquet/hadoop/TestParquetFileWriter.java
@@ -65,6 +65,39 @@
 public class TestParquetFileWriter {
   private static final Log LOG = Log.getLog(TestParquetFileWriter.class);
 
+  @Test
+  public void testWriteMode() throws Exception {
+    File testDir = new File("target/test/TestParquetFileWriter/");
+    testDir.mkdirs();
+    File testFile = new File(testDir, "testParquetFile");
+    testFile = testFile.getAbsoluteFile();
+    testFile.createNewFile();
+    MessageType schema = MessageTypeParser.parseMessageType(
+        "message m { required group a {required binary b;} required group "
+        + "c { required int64 d; }}");
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+
+    ParquetFileWriter writer = null;
+    boolean exceptionThrown = false;
+    Path path = new Path(testFile.toURI());
+    try {
+      writer = new ParquetFileWriter(conf, schema, path,
+          ParquetFileWriter.CREATE);
+    } catch(IOException ioe1) {
+      exceptionThrown = true;
+    }
+    assertTrue(exceptionThrown);
+    exceptionThrown = false;
+    try {
+      writer = new ParquetFileWriter(conf, schema, path,
+          ParquetFileWriter.OVERWRITE);
+    } catch(IOException ioe2) {
+      exceptionThrown = true;
+    }
+    assertTrue(!exceptionThrown);
+    testFile.delete();
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testWriteRead() throws Exception {