This is a common problem its normally the copper piping inside the walls are not secured to the beams well enough and it causes water hammer in the lines...
if its only just started doing it recently you may get away with cleaning out your taps or replacing them but alot of the time you cant do much about it as the pipes are concealled in the walls
What style of ashfield faucet are you having the problem with? Lavatory or kitchen sink faucet? Does the chatter persist or go away after a few rapid knocks? Are you opening the valve slowly or quickly? Are you opening the valve full open or just partially open? And in what position is your hot/cold dial set when it chatters?
All of these variables can help in diagnostics if you experiment with each different operational characteristics and note the chatter results of each.
With that said, it has been my experience that loose pipe or no loose pipe, if you slam the faucet full open or full closed in a very rapid manner, you will likely hear water hammer. And if the pipe is poorly strapped, you may hear one loud hammer followed by a few less violent hammers as it subsides.
Ashfield single lever valves do have a seat below the valve in it's housing, and my point is that if you are experiencing continued hammering when the faucet runs, The source of the hammering is usually a case of the cartridge not being held tight in it's housing, and doing what I refer to as "floating", or vibrating up and down as the water pressure builds pressure against the opening where the valve seat is located, it causes the loose valve cartridge to push upward, then sucks it back down as the pressure equalizes in the chamber that he cartridge sits in. It repeats this up down cycle at a great speed, thus the hammering in the supply piping.
Or it could be that the cartridge is being forced up, away from the seat fitting below it, allowing the seat to piston up and down as the water passes through it.
Either way, it would be easy to check the downward tension on the cartridge. Remove the handle and turn the crown nut clockwise by hand/finger. If the top spins, you've probably found your problem, in which case, go below, under your sink, and turn off the two water supply valves, then place your faucet handle back on the cartridge stem and place the faucet in an open position. Now once again use your fingers to spin the crown nut clock wise until you can't tighten it any more with your fingers.
Replace the handle and hold down screw, remove the aerator from your faucet, in the case of the ashfield pumping well type design faucet, there very well may not be an aerator, or screen. Place the faucet in full open on hot and cold sides. Now go back below and gently turn each shut off valve back on.
Turn the valves to full open position then back just a 1/8 or 1/16 turn to move the stem slightly less than absolute full open.
Let the water flow a few seconds, then turn your faucet off and replace the aerator if you had removed it.
Now test it for the chattering again. It should be gone, but if not, try the same procedure again, but this time use a make shift tool of sort that will help you to tighten the crown nut a bit tighter, not a lot tighter, just a bit. then check for chatter again.
As a secondary possible source, I have had a shut off valve cause the floating flutter noise, just turn one of the valves off at a time and test for chatter, if it only chatters when the cold side is on and the hot side is off, then the cold shut off valve would be the culprit.
I suggest you have a Plumber perform any work on your shut of valves located below the sink in your cabinet.
If you are having trouble with a kitchen sink faucet style of single lever faucet, you can apply the same tactics to test and repair a loose cartridge, the only difference is the location of the handle and cartridge being on the side of the faucet instead of on top.
If you have a sprayer on that kitchen sink faucet, you have another whole new possible chatter maker in the diverter valve that controls the water flow when you open the sprayer valve. It is located below the connection where the hose for the sprayer connects to the faucet.
You can go online and type ashfield single lever faucet in the search field, then convert your search results to "images". stroll through the pictures until you see your faucet, with an exploded view of all the inside parts...locate the diverter then see if you can access it without damaging your faucet in the process.
It too will have a crown nut holding it securely in place, if this nut is loose, try to tighten and test. I have had cases where the diverter has been faulty and has to be replaced to fix the problematic fluttering/water hammer.
Hope your not totally corn fused now......Good luck and always know where and how to shut your water off before attempting to work on fixtures, pipe and fittings on your water supply system. The term "Fixtures" does include faucets. Happy Plumbing.
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