Soft spot on wall

[Alvin]

Hello,

I recently bought a house that has all the main bedrooms in the basement. You can see the foundation wall in all of the bedrooms. It acts as a ledge. All the walls are finished and there appears to be drywall overtop of the foundation wall.

My question is that I have noticed a soft spot on one of the foundation portion of the wall in one of the bedroom (the drywall on the foundation wall) and I am not sure what I should do about it. The soft spot is under the window and above the electric baseboard heater. It doesn't feel symmetrical. I'm not sure how to describe it...it's like as if the gyp-rock has gone away (dissolved?) leaving the paper part of the dry way.

The soft spot doesn't appear newly formed. There is no sign (smell, touch, or sight) of mold. I have an 17L (30 pint) dehumidifier with digital RH meter set to 60%.

I'm not sure what or if I should do anything about this? What could be some possible causes for this? And what action(s) should I be taking.

Thank you,

Alvin

[Lawrence]

It sound like water damage. since it is under the window you have to guess that either the window leaks or perhaps was left open during a rain. Usually you have to find the source of the leak before it is worth repairing it. Since this seems to be an isolated incident I think you can just go ahead with the repair. this means removing the damaged area and installing new wall board. Just make sure that whoever uses that room is instructed to keep the window closed during a rain.

[Sacramento Dave]

Try taping around the area and see if there are any other areas like it . What you want see if there are any lines about 3/16" leaving the area . What you are looking for are Termite trails. I a used a wire brush to hit the walls in my house , the termite trails would dent in then there would be pockets every now and then. That's how I found I had termites I leaned my hand on the wall a dent appeared. The termites were eating the paper between the gypsum and paint. That was the minor damage from the termites.

"Alvin" Hello,

[hallerb]

does the home with bedrooms in the basement have ingress egress windows for safe easy exit in a fire? or easy entrance by firemen?

this serious question should be addressed before any repairs are begun.

ingress egress cant need a ladder to get out or talk of squeezing past a big obstruction, windows must meet code compliance for extremely good reasons

[Alvin]

I agree. I think it's simply water damage from the window being left open. I've checked the other walls in that room as well as around the house and cannot find the same problem.

What I'm surprised about is that there is no visible signs of water damage around the window or on the wall. My guess is that the damage was done awhile ago and was simply painted over?

I plan on repairing it myself once I find the right reading material or video online. Depending on what I find out, I may not do it myself and get a professional. It all depends on how much expertise is needed to remove the electric baseboard heater and repair the wall.

Alvin