Enclosing a Dallas Rooftop Bar with 10 Motorized Screens: The CRAFT Restaurant Install

Audie Builds — June 25, 2026

We enclosed the entire rooftop bar at CRAFT Restaurant & Beer Market in Dallas with 10 SunPro motorized retractable screens (custom vinyl plus a north-facing solar-mesh hybrid), installed overnight before opening. The result turned an open-air patio into an all-season, weather-protected space the restaurant can use year-round.

Here's the full build: the specs, the design decisions, and the hurdles we solved getting heavy commercial screens onto a finished, second-floor rooftop with no elevator, all without the restaurant ever missing a service.

At a glance

• Project: Rooftop bar enclosure (commercial)
• Location: CRAFT Restaurant & Beer Market, Dallas, TX
• General contractor: 20Twenty Construction
• Screens: 10 motorized retractable screens
• System: SunPro Motorized Screens
• Fabric: Strataglass Panorama FR clear vinyl + Weblon borders + Suntex 95 mesh (north-facing)
• Controls: 2 remotes + Bond Bridge Pro app
• Tracks set: 20 (2 per opening)
• Install: Overnight, 5 nights
• Completed: June 2026

The challenge: a rooftop bar with no easy way up

CRAFT Restaurant & Beer Market sits on a second-floor rooftop in Dallas. It's a great place to drink a beer, and a genuinely hard place to install ten large commercial screens. There's no elevator, so every screen, every track, and every tool went up the stairs by hand.

The patio also had to stay in show-ready shape. We were the final trade on site, brought in once everything else was finished, which meant working in a polished, furnished space we couldn't afford to scratch, around existing tables, chairs, and a fully built-out bar.

On top of that, the restaurant asked us to work overnight, from midnight to early morning, so the screens went in without interrupting a single service. Overnight work isn't how we normally run a job, but when a client needs it, we accommodate it without missing a beat. We set our schedule to theirs and delivered the same finish we would in daylight.

Being the final trade doesn't mean showing up cold, though. Months earlier, while the rooftop was still bare steel, we walked the structure with 20Twenty Construction to coordinate where the headers needed to sit so every screen housing and track would land on solid framing. Ten large motorized screens can't be an afterthought bolted to whatever's there — the mounting points were planned into the building before the roof was even finished, which is exactly why the overnight install went in clean.

What we installed: 10 SunPro motorized screens

The enclosure is ten SunPro Motorized Screens: retractable motorized shades that drop to seal the rooftop against wind, sun, and rain, then roll out of sight when the weather's good. Each screen runs in sealed side tracks; across the ten openings we cut and set 20 tracks.

Most of the openings are clear four-season panels (Strataglass Panorama FR clear vinyl with Weblon vinyl borders), which is what turns an open patio into a four-season room that holds heat on a cold night and keeps the rain out. We consulted on the material for each opening based on how that side of the building actually gets used.

The few north-facing openings became a hybrid: Suntex 95 solar mesh combined with vinyl. North light is softer, so a solar-mesh-and-vinyl mix gives guests sun and glare control without fully closing off the view, a detail we worked out with SunPro's design team.

Every screen is motorized and runs on two remotes plus a Bond Bridge Pro, so the bar isn't tied to a handheld. Staff can raise or lower any screen from an app, from anywhere. Open the rooftop before a shift, close it when a storm rolls in, all from a phone.

Designing it: the manufacturer, the architect, and a warranty call

This started long before install. I came out during pre-construction to assess the build and coordinate the things that have to be right before a screen ever ships: where our electrical connections would land, and what substrate the housings and tracks would mount to. Get the power and the structure wrong in pre-construction and you pay for it later.

From there the design went back and forth between the architectural team, the general contractor (20Twenty Construction), and SunPro to lock the CAD drawings. 20Twenty's project managers were great to work with: they kept the trades coordinated and let us do what we do best. The first plan was all vinyl; working with SunPro's design team, we refined it into the final configuration, including the north-facing hybrids, before anything went to manufacturing.

One real decision came down to warranty. Our configuration removed the center mullion welds between some of the vinyl panels for a cleaner, more open look, but SunPro doesn't warranty vinyl-on-vinyl welds in that setup. We laid out the tradeoff, talked it through for about a week, and the team made the call to proceed with eyes open. Knowing exactly where a manufacturer's warranty ends is the kind of thing you only get from doing this work.

Once the drawings were approved, it went to payment and manufacturing: roughly a couple of weeks to build, plus about a week for delivery.

Why we worked overnight (and how we protected a finished space)

Because the restaurant stayed open, the real install happened between midnight and sunrise. We hand-carried the screens up to the second floor, set up scaffolding and ladders, and worked around the existing furniture: moving tables and chairs, staging our platforms, and hanging heavy screens in a tight, finished space.

As the final sub, protecting that space was part of the job. We set up our cut station on the second floor, laid down cardboard, and cleaned our shavings as we went so the rooftop kept its showroom finish. The crew that pulled this off is the same two guys I've run architectural installs with for over a year, people I don't have to think twice about.

Five nights, one missing track, and zero modifications

The install ran five nights. We set everything in the first three; then we hit the kind of snag every real project has: one screen was missing its track in the delivery. I coordinated directly with the manufacturer and had the replacement shipped within the week. Frustrating in the moment, but it's part of building things: you fix it and keep moving.

Night four was all wiring. We shortened and cleaned up the connections to the outlets for a seamless look and, just as important, sealed everything so there were no open penetration points for rain. The fifth night was just me, programming all ten screens, pairing the remotes, and setting up the Bond Bridge Pro.

Here's the part I'm proud of: across all 20 tracks, we didn't make a single drastic modification. Everything fit because the measurements were right the first time. I come from measuring windows for entire residential properties, so "measure twice, cut once" is muscle memory, and reading where a structure is plumb versus level by eye is what keeps a job like this from turning into expensive rework. We did retire one aluminum blade on the miter saw cutting all that track. A fair trade for a perfect fit.

The result: an all-season rooftop bar

CRAFT's rooftop went from a fair-weather patio to a space the restaurant can run in Dallas wind, sun, and rain: screens down to seal it in, screens up for an open-air night, all from a button or an app. It's the kind of upgrade that adds usable nights to a commercial calendar.

Thinking about commercial motorized screens for your Dallas patio?

If you run a restaurant, bar, or commercial patio in Dallas-Fort Worth and want to add all-season, weather-protected seating, this is exactly what we do. We're a direct, multi-brand dealer and every install is owner-led from the first measurement to the final programming.

See our commercial & restaurant screens, browse motorized screens and pricing, see what we install in Dallas, or read how motorized retractable screens work. And if you want to see this one in person, CRAFT Restaurant & Beer Market is at 5974 W Northwest Hwy, Dallas. Grab a beer on the rooftop and look up.

Frequently asked questions

Can you install motorized patio screens on a commercial rooftop?

Yes. We enclosed an entire second-floor rooftop bar at CRAFT Restaurant & Beer Market in Dallas with 10 motorized retractable screens, hand-carried up with no elevator and installed overnight so the restaurant never closed. Commercial rooftops, restaurants, and bars are a core part of what we do.

Will you work overnight or around our business hours for a commercial install?

We can. Overnight work isn't our default, but we regularly schedule around a business's hours, including midnight-to-morning installs, so a restaurant or bar keeps operating while we work. The CRAFT rooftop went in entirely overnight, before opening each day.

What motorized screen system and fabric did you use at CRAFT?

Ten SunPro motorized retractable screens: mostly clear Strataglass Panorama FR vinyl with Weblon borders for four-season weather protection, with a Suntex 95 solar-mesh-and-vinyl hybrid on the north-facing openings. Controls are two remotes plus a Bond Bridge Pro for app control from anywhere.

How long does a commercial motorized screen project take?

Design and manufacturing are the long poles: coordinating CAD drawings between the architect, general contractor, and manufacturer, then about two weeks to build and one to deliver. The CRAFT install itself ran five overnight nights for 10 screens, wiring, and programming.