diff --git a/crates/polars-io/src/cloud/object_store_setup.rs b/crates/polars-io/src/cloud/object_store_setup.rs
index 4d43d8184d62a..7b18640db6179 100644
--- a/crates/polars-io/src/cloud/object_store_setup.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-io/src/cloud/object_store_setup.rs
@@ -40,17 +40,9 @@ fn url_and_creds_to_key(url: &Url, options: Option<&CloudOptions>) -> String {
     )
 }
 
-/// Simply construct an object_store `Path` struct from a string.
-pub fn object_path_from_string(path: String) -> object_store::path::Path {
-    // We transmute because they don't expose a way to just create it from a string
-    // without encoding or decoding it. If one day we can't use this transmute hack
-    // anymore then we'll just have to `Path::from_url_path(percent_encode(path))`
-    {
-        const _: [(); std::mem::align_of::<String>()] =
-            [(); std::mem::align_of::<object_store::path::Path>()];
-    };
-
-    unsafe { std::mem::transmute::<String, object_store::path::Path>(path) }
+/// Construct an object_store `Path` from a string without any encoding/decoding.
+pub fn object_path_from_string(path: String) -> PolarsResult<object_store::path::Path> {
+    object_store::path::Path::parse(&path).map_err(to_compute_err)
 }
 
 /// Build an [`ObjectStore`] based on the URL and passed in url. Return the cloud location and an implementation of the object store.
@@ -147,7 +139,7 @@ mod test {
         use super::object_path_from_string;
 
         let path = "%25";
-        let out = object_path_from_string(path.to_string());
+        let out = object_path_from_string(path.to_string()).unwrap();
 
         assert_eq!(out.as_ref(), path);
     }
diff --git a/crates/polars-io/src/file_cache/utils.rs b/crates/polars-io/src/file_cache/utils.rs
index 6262cfe772aab..b239c2792e54b 100644
--- a/crates/polars-io/src/file_cache/utils.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-io/src/file_cache/utils.rs
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ pub fn init_entries_from_uri_list<A: AsRef<[Arc<str>]>>(
 
                         let cloud_path = {
                             assert!(expansion.is_none(), "path should not contain wildcards");
-                            object_path_from_string(prefix)
+                            object_path_from_string(prefix)?
                         };
 
                         let object_store = object_store.clone();
diff --git a/crates/polars-io/src/ipc/ipc_reader_async.rs b/crates/polars-io/src/ipc/ipc_reader_async.rs
index 2a78f4bfe3b62..4501898b50ade 100644
--- a/crates/polars-io/src/ipc/ipc_reader_async.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-io/src/ipc/ipc_reader_async.rs
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ impl IpcReaderAsync {
             // Any wildcards should already have been resolved here. Without this assertion they would
             // be ignored.
             debug_assert!(expansion.is_none(), "path should not contain wildcards");
-            object_path_from_string(prefix)
+            object_path_from_string(prefix)?
         };
 
         Ok(Self {
diff --git a/crates/polars-io/src/parquet/read/async_impl.rs b/crates/polars-io/src/parquet/read/async_impl.rs
index e53cd8922d71a..5ec9632871d58 100644
--- a/crates/polars-io/src/parquet/read/async_impl.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-io/src/parquet/read/async_impl.rs
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ impl ParquetObjectStore {
         // Any wildcards should already have been resolved here. Without this assertion they would
         // be ignored.
         debug_assert!(expansion.is_none(), "path should not contain wildcards");
-        let path = object_path_from_string(prefix);
+        let path = object_path_from_string(prefix)?;
 
         Ok(ParquetObjectStore {
             store: PolarsObjectStore::new(store),
diff --git a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/file_list_reader.rs b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/file_list_reader.rs
index eaec836187320..1b0a88f5c3317 100644
--- a/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/file_list_reader.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-lazy/src/scan/file_list_reader.rs
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ fn expand_paths(
                     let (cloud_location, store) =
                         polars_io::cloud::build_object_store(path, cloud_options).await?;
 
-                    let prefix = object_path_from_string(cloud_location.prefix.clone());
+                    let prefix = object_path_from_string(cloud_location.prefix.clone())?;
 
                     let out = if !path.ends_with("/")
                         && cloud_location.expansion.is_none()