Walls and Ceilings - dry wall pushing out

on my wall on sheetrocked basement stairs there is a section of the wall that is "pushing out". Is it best to try to spackle and spread out this aberation or too cut out a section of drywall and find the problem then resheetrock?
thanks??
Adam

"push outs" usually occur on a joint. The most common cause is that a fastener (or fasteners) holding the sheetrock on one side of the joint have loosened, allowing a portion of the wall to "bulge".

One way to test for this condition is to gently press on the wall. If the sheetrock can be moved back to the stud, it's likely a loose fastener. Assuming no other type of damage, you can use long sheetrock screws to refasten the offending piece to the stud. Make sure you apply pressure to the sheetrock being refastened, otherwise the screws are likely to simply punch through the sheetrock itself. The screw holes can then be spackled, sanded and painted.

In some cases, bulges are symptoms of deeper structural problems involving the framing or even the foundation. I would test for the simpler problem described above first, before being tempted to look for more extensive/expensive causes.

rdn2113 has you mostly covered. One more thing I can add is that depending on which side of the stairs its on the drywall may have been glued to the foundation and popped off that way.