No. But you have lots of company.

Aluminum siding (and even wood siding) are not the final drainage plane on the exterior of the house.

By covering over the wood with aluminum all you did was accelerate the rot by further trapping moisture in the wood.

The tar paper layer behind the siding IS the drainage plane intended to stop water intrusion.

If there is a lot of rot in the old wood siding, it is likely it should also be removed, the structure checked for damage, and then sheathing and a drainage plane be installed before new siding.

I have to agree.
both metal and vinyl siding
hides a multitude of problems.

yours is not an uncommon problem.

hopefully it isn't as bad everywhere.
but don't be suprised if it is.
as you have learned a small project
grows.

best of luck.

I just noticed a typo in the original post. My house was built in 1954, not 1984. The owners who owned it in 1970 put on the aluminum siding.

Lesson learned, but I don't think I'll ever be able to sell this house and go apply it somewhere else! Lesson is, don't buy a house with 2 layers of siding.

I feel for you, that you found all this, but in a way finding it now may give you some options.. Depending on how far the rot has gone, it is possible that the basic house structure may be intact.
It is a big job but doable to remove all of both layers of siding and reside. That might be something to think about if you plan to live in the house for many years or sell it some day.

I would love to rip it all off down to the sheating, but just don't have the $$ to do it now. My dad is coming next week to continue helping. We'll tear off the old wood siding on the back of the garage and see what we find. You can see the studs on the inside of the garage - there's no wallboard. From the inside, the studs look fine and not rotted. Crossing my fingers they really are OK.

I'm trying to focus on the positive - my family has a roof over our heads, food on the table, and shoes on our feet. :)

"From the inside, the studs look fine and not rotted."

If you have access t the studs take an ice pick and push it into the sides of the studs near the exterior.

You may need to go every 3-4 inches on both sides of each stud.

If there is a rotted spot you will know right away.

It just takes a lot of time.

Most of us 'Old House Owners' feel your pain! It seems that every project turns into a much larger issue once you start it. That is partly the fun part of owning an old house, is that you get to restore it as you go. Kudos to you for taking the time to do it right.

I was in the process of trying to buy an old brick house once, that was covered in aluminum siding. I kept asking myself, "why would someone cover lovely brick with aluminum?" The owners lied on the contract and said it was because their son worked for an aluminum siding company and they wanted to give him that first sale. Luckily I had an amazing inspector that thought it was odd as well. Turns out the chinking in the brick had completely dissolved over the years, and the siding was hiding the fact that the house was falling down around bad brick and rotten members. Great lesson for me. Now I steer clear of that type of siding, and see it mainly as a coverup for taking care of the original problem, or possibly as the cause of a future problem.

I'm not sure where you live, but have you tried to find a building material store that may have discounted products? There's one local to me where they guy buys tractor trailer loads of stuff and re-sells it at great prices. I resided a part of my house with the cedar siding I found there, for a fraction of the cost. Best of luck to you in your continued efforts to restore you house.

"chinking in the brick"

Do you mean the mortar?

Chinking refers to filing in between logs in log cabins, not bricks.