A porous material with a surface layer was fabricated from glass abrasive sludge and expanding agents. The glass abrasive sludges were mixed with expanding agents and compacted into precursors. These precursors were sintered in the range of $700-900^{circ}C$ for 20 min. The sintered porous materials had a surface layer with smaller pores and inner parts with larger pores. The surface layer and closed pores controlled water absorption. As the expanding agent fraction and the sintering temperature increased, the porosity and pore size increased. The porous materials with $Fe_2O_3$ and graphite as the expanding agents had a low absorption ratio of about 3% or lower while the porous material with $CaCO_3$ as the expanding agent had a higher absorption ratio and more open pores.