diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 1ffd15a7ba9..1838bb26111 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ env:
   - OPTS="--disable-ssl"
   - TESTSUITE=1 KERNEL=3.18.1
   - TESTSUITE=1 OPTS="--enable-shared"
+  - BUILD_ENV="-m32" OPTS="--disable-ssl"
   - KERNEL=3.17.7 DPDK=1
   - KERNEL=3.17.7 DPDK=1 OPTS="--enable-shared"
   - KERNEL=3.17.7
diff --git a/.travis/build.sh b/.travis/build.sh
index 35709921577..a8a515b9559 100755
--- a/.travis/build.sh
+++ b/.travis/build.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ set -o errexit
 
 KERNELSRC=""
 CFLAGS="-Werror"
+SPARSE_FLAGS=""
 EXTRA_OPTS=""
 
 function install_kernel()
@@ -74,7 +75,7 @@ if [ "$DPDK" ]; then
     EXTRA_OPTS+="--with-dpdk=./dpdk-$DPDK_VER/build"
 elif [ $CC != "clang" ]; then
     # DPDK headers currently trigger sparse errors
-    CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -Wsparse-error"
+    SPARSE_FLAGS="$SPARSE_FLAGS -Wsparse-error"
 fi
 
 configure_ovs $EXTRA_OPTS $*
@@ -86,8 +87,11 @@ fi
 
 if [ $CC = "clang" ]; then
     make CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -Wno-error=unused-command-line-argument"
+elif [[ $BUILD_ENV =~ "-m32" ]]; then
+    # Disable sparse for 32bit builds on 64bit machine
+    make CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $BUILD_ENV"
 else
-    make CFLAGS="$CFLAGS" C=1
+    make CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $BUILD_ENV $SPARSE_FLAGS" C=1
 fi
 
 if [ $TESTSUITE ] && [ $CC != "clang" ]; then
diff --git a/.travis/prepare.sh b/.travis/prepare.sh
index f8bd0a19fae..a78282be5f9 100755
--- a/.travis/prepare.sh
+++ b/.travis/prepare.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 sudo apt-get update -qq
 sudo apt-get install -qq libssl-dev llvm-dev
+sudo apt-get install -qq gcc-multilib
 
 git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/devel/sparse/chrisl/sparse.git
 cd sparse && make && sudo make install PREFIX=/usr && cd ..