diff --git a/stdlib/LinearAlgebra/src/LinearAlgebra.jl b/stdlib/LinearAlgebra/src/LinearAlgebra.jl
index ebdb78a0c63c2..acafc466f2919 100644
--- a/stdlib/LinearAlgebra/src/LinearAlgebra.jl
+++ b/stdlib/LinearAlgebra/src/LinearAlgebra.jl
@@ -454,8 +454,13 @@ _cut_B(x::AbstractVector, r::UnitRange) = length(x)  > length(r) ? x[r]   : x
 _cut_B(X::AbstractMatrix, r::UnitRange) = size(X, 1) > length(r) ? X[r,:] : X
 
 ## append right hand side with zeros if necessary
-_zeros(::Type{T}, b::AbstractVector, n::Integer) where {T} = zeros(T, max(length(b), n))
-_zeros(::Type{T}, B::AbstractMatrix, n::Integer) where {T} = zeros(T, max(size(B, 1), n), size(B, 2))
+_zeros(::Type{T}, b::AbstractVector, n::Integer) where {T} =
+    fill!(similar(b, T, max(length(b), n)), zero(T))
+_zeros(::Type{T}, B::AbstractMatrix, n::Integer) where {T} =
+    fill!(similar(B, T, max(size(B, 1), n), size(B, 2)), zero(T))
+# return a dense array, since similar(::Union{BiTriSym, Diagonal}) returns a sparse array
+_zeros(::Type{T}, B::Union{BiTriSym, Diagonal}, n::Integer) where {T} =
+    zeros(T, max(size(B, 1), n), size(B, 2))
 
 # General fallback definition for handling under- and overdetermined system as well as square problems
 # While this definition is pretty general, it does e.g. promote to common element type of lhs and rhs
diff --git a/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/SparseArrays.jl b/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/SparseArrays.jl
index e3fcd1ef955c9..97fd6096f07af 100644
--- a/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/SparseArrays.jl
+++ b/stdlib/SparseArrays/src/SparseArrays.jl
@@ -54,6 +54,11 @@ similar(M::Tridiagonal, ::Type{T}, dims::Union{Dims{1},Dims{2}}) where {T} = spz
 
 zero(a::AbstractSparseArray) = spzeros(eltype(a), size(a)...)
 
+LinearAlgebra._zeros(::Type{T}, b::AbstractSparseVector, n::Integer) where {T} =
+    zeros(T, max(length(b), n))
+LinearAlgebra._zeros(::Type{T}, B::AbstractSparseMatrix, n::Integer) where {T} =
+    zeros(T, max(size(B, 1), n), size(B, 2))
+
 const BiTriSym = Union{Bidiagonal,SymTridiagonal,Tridiagonal}
 function *(A::BiTriSym, B::BiTriSym)
     TS = promote_op(matprod, eltype(A), eltype(B))