How should I deal with a bulging wall

[Rocky74]

I have bought an apartment and I have a question regarding something I've noticed on a wall in a bedroom. About one meter up on the wall, the plasterboard bulges out significantly. The bulge runs along a large part of the wall, about two meters, and increases from one side to the other, but stops on one side, about 50 cm before a door frame. On the backside of the wall, there is a bathroom, but there are no water pipes placed so high up in the bathroom that can be suspected to cause the wall to warp for that reason. The most prominent part of the bulge is outside the edge of the bathroom (the bedroom is longer than the bathroom). The apartment is on the first floor of three in a building built in the 50s. The bathroom is in good condition and my assessment is that the waterproofing layers are not damaged. The bedroom wall is wallpapered, and there are no discolorations, bad smells, or cracks in the wallpaper. Is it advisable to open up the plasterboard to see what the bulge consists of? The basic idea is that the whole wall will be renovated, to reinforce on the bedroom side with OSB boards + new plasterboard, but the fact that the plasterboard is bulging makes me unsure whether it is enough just to replace it. It might be worth noting that the wall in the bathroom facing the bedroom does not bulge or look strange in any other way. Feel free to come with ideas and advice on how I should handle the plasterboard wall, and what I should consider.

 

[Tompafix]

I have bought an apartment and I have a question regarding something I noticed on a wall in a bedroom. About a meter up on the wall, the drywall bulges out significantly. The bulge runs along a large part of the wall, about two meters, and increases from one side to the other, but stops on one side, about 50 cm before a doorframe. On the other side of the wall, there is a bathroom, but there are no water pipes placed that high up in the bathroom that could be suspected as the cause of the wall bowing for that reason. The most prominent part of the bulge is outside the edge of the bathroom (the bedroom is longer than the bathroom). The apartment is on the first floor of three in a building that was built in the 1950s. The bathroom is in good condition, and my assessment is that the waterproofing is not damaged. The bedroom wall is wallpapered, and there are no discolorations, bad odors, or cracks in the wallpaper. Is it advisable to open up the drywall to see what the bulge consists of? The basic plan is to renovate the entire wall, to reinforce it on the bedroom side with OSB boards + new drywall, but the fact that the drywall bulges makes me unsure if it is enough to just replace it. It might be worth mentioning that the bathroom wall facing the bedroom is not bowing or looking strange in any other way. Please feel free to share ideas and advice on how I should handle the drywall, and what I should be thinking about.

Are you sure it’s a drywall? Not very common in the 1950s.
But if it is, it could simply be that some studs were warped during installation. One way to fix it is to just screw new studs onto the old ones. That way, you get a vertical wall if you install them correctly.