Garage Drywall Buckling

Any idea why my garage wall is doing this? It's buckling along a seam at the bottom. I've been in the house almost 5 years. It was built in 2012. I could see that seam was cracked when I first moved in. It's gotten worse over the years. It got so bad that I was afraid that the baseplate was somehow buckling or there was water damage so I cut it open. It appears to just be the drywall but how/why? It's sitting atop a 4 1/2-foot block wall and is about 9 feet of drywall. The wall supports the second floor.

My plan is to cut out where it's buckled and put a new sheet in, but not if it's going to continue to do that.

 

Poor hanging technique. Not securely fastened. Not enough screws. Bad place for a joint. If it's 108" tall it would have been better to use 54" x 12' sheets so the joint was in the middle of the wall. They probably thought it would be easier for the tapers to tape. But not better. All those things put together.

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

So do you think I should put in a bunch more screws and just repair the bottom 12" or so? Or cut it 54" up and install 54" x 12' sheets? I'm not too terribly concerned with cosmetics in the garage but I don't want the drywall to fall off.

 

I would not attempt to just screw it back. Guarantee it will probably crack again. But it also doesn't need to be 54" up. If you went 24" up that would be good enough. Pop off the baseboard and door trim. Snap a line that is about 24 3/8 above the block. Cut on that line and remove the drywall. Then rip a 4 foot sheet in half and install those pieces. If there are any gaps between the sheets, fill those with durabond before you tape.