diff --git a/tools/dockerfile/grpc_php/Dockerfile b/tools/dockerfile/grpc_php/Dockerfile
index 100d7b3bdb3..e84455fc94d 100644
--- a/tools/dockerfile/grpc_php/Dockerfile
+++ b/tools/dockerfile/grpc_php/Dockerfile
@@ -45,3 +45,5 @@ RUN cd /var/local/git/grpc/src/php/ext/grpc && git pull && phpize
 RUN cd /var/local/git/grpc/src/php/ext/grpc \
   && ./configure \
   && make
+
+RUN cd /var/local/git/grpc/src/php && ./bin/run_tests.sh
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tools/dockerfile/grpc_php_base/Dockerfile b/tools/dockerfile/grpc_php_base/Dockerfile
index cc874fd7c55..c58cccba742 100644
--- a/tools/dockerfile/grpc_php_base/Dockerfile
+++ b/tools/dockerfile/grpc_php_base/Dockerfile
@@ -50,15 +50,15 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
     libsqlite3-dev \
     libssl-dev \
     libtool \
+    libxml2 \
     libyaml-dev \
     make \
     patch \
     procps \
-# TODO(mlumish): Uncomment these lines when building against them works
-#    php5-common \
-#    php5-cli \
-#    php5-dev \
-#    php-pear \
+    php5-common \
+    php5-cli \
+    php5-dev \
+    php-pear \
     pkg-config \
     procps \
     sqlite3 \
@@ -66,13 +66,6 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
 
 # Install the version of PHP gRPC is tested against
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noniteractive
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y libxml2 libxml2-dev  # used by PHP
-RUN cd /var/local \
-  && curl -o php-5.5.17.tar.gz http://php.net/distributions/php-5.5.17.tar.gz \
-  && tar -xf php-5.5.17.tar.gz \
-  && cd php-5.5.17 \
-  && ./configure --with-zlib=/usr --with-libxml-dir=ext/libxml \
-  && make -j12 && make install
 
 # Download the patched PHP protobuf so that PHP gRPC clients can be generated
 # from proto3 schemas.