diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/BUILD
index 8ca10bd1bb3..4503f0c71cc 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/BUILD
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ go_test(
     deps = [
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/constants:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util:go_default_library",
-        "//pkg/volume/util:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/api/apps/v1:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/api/core/v1:go_default_library",
     ],
@@ -37,12 +36,13 @@ go_library(
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/features:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/apiclient:go_default_library",
-        "//pkg/volume/util:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/golang/glog:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/api/apps/v1:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/api/core/v1:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1:go_default_library",
+        "//vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes:go_default_library",
+        "//vendor/k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes/scheme:go_default_library",
     ],
 )
 
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/selfhosting.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/selfhosting.go
index 4993ba0a74c..3d20c959dd8 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/selfhosting.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/selfhosting.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package selfhosting
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"io/ioutil"
 	"os"
 	"time"
 
@@ -26,12 +27,13 @@ import (
 	apps "k8s.io/api/apps/v1"
 	"k8s.io/api/core/v1"
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime"
 	clientset "k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes"
+	clientscheme "k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes/scheme"
 	kubeadmapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm"
 	kubeadmconstants "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/features"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/apiclient"
-	volumeutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/volume/util"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -85,12 +87,11 @@ func CreateSelfHostedControlPlane(manifestsDir, kubeConfigDir string, cfg *kubea
 			continue
 		}
 
-		// Load the Static Pod file in order to be able to create a self-hosted variant of that file
-		pod, err := volumeutil.LoadPodFromFile(manifestPath)
+		// Load the Static Pod spec in order to be able to create a self-hosted variant of that file
+		podSpec, err := loadPodSpecFromFile(manifestPath)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
-		podSpec := &pod.Spec
 
 		// Build a DaemonSet object from the loaded PodSpec
 		ds := BuildDaemonSet(componentName, podSpec, mutators)
@@ -174,3 +175,23 @@ func BuildSelfhostedComponentLabels(component string) map[string]string {
 func BuildSelfHostedComponentLabelQuery(componentName string) string {
 	return fmt.Sprintf("k8s-app=%s", kubeadmconstants.AddSelfHostedPrefix(componentName))
 }
+
+func loadPodSpecFromFile(filePath string) (*v1.PodSpec, error) {
+	podDef, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filePath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to read file path %s: %+v", filePath, err)
+	}
+
+	if len(podDef) == 0 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("file was empty: %s", filePath)
+	}
+
+	codec := clientscheme.Codecs.UniversalDecoder()
+	pod := &v1.Pod{}
+
+	if err = runtime.DecodeInto(codec, podDef, pod); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed decoding pod: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	return &pod.Spec, nil
+}
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/selfhosting_test.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/selfhosting_test.go
index 5b30899d77b..8d7e757f675 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/selfhosting_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/selfhosting/selfhosting_test.go
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ import (
 	apps "k8s.io/api/apps/v1"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util"
-	volumeutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/volume/util"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -494,11 +493,10 @@ func TestBuildDaemonSet(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 		defer os.Remove(tempFile)
 
-		pod, err := volumeutil.LoadPodFromFile(tempFile)
+		podSpec, err := loadPodSpecFromFile(tempFile)
 		if err != nil {
-			t.Fatalf("couldn't load the specified Pod")
+			t.Fatalf("couldn't load the specified Pod Spec")
 		}
-		podSpec := &pod.Spec
 
 		ds := BuildDaemonSet(rt.component, podSpec, GetDefaultMutators())
 		dsBytes, err := util.MarshalToYaml(ds, apps.SchemeGroupVersion)
@@ -517,6 +515,11 @@ func TestLoadPodSpecFromFile(t *testing.T) {
 		content     string
 		expectError bool
 	}{
+		{
+			// No content
+			content:     "",
+			expectError: true,
+		},
 		{
 			// Good YAML
 			content: `
@@ -570,11 +573,16 @@ spec:
 		}
 		defer os.Remove(tempFile)
 
-		_, err = volumeutil.LoadPodFromFile(tempFile)
+		_, err = loadPodSpecFromFile(tempFile)
 		if (err != nil) != rt.expectError {
 			t.Errorf("failed TestLoadPodSpecFromFile:\nexpected error:\n%t\nsaw:\n%v", rt.expectError, err)
 		}
 	}
+
+	_, err := loadPodSpecFromFile("")
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Error("unexpected success: loadPodSpecFromFile should return error when no file is given")
+	}
 }
 
 func createTempFileWithContent(content []byte) (string, error) {