My washing machine overflowed the discharge today - there is a funnel shaped overflow that overflowed - can liquid plumber or something like that help? My husband says soon everything else will be effected - toilets, diswasher sink - eek help

I think you are describing a vertical stand drain pipe, right? If its 2" it is current code for a washer but that will increase to 3" in 2009 with new codes. Some washer can over power a 2" line but you may have some clogging starting to build downstream. Hubby may be right if you don't rod out that drain line. Liquid plumber, not my thing but you can try. It works best when the clog is 100% so the stuff can sit on the clog for several minutes.