Question: the height on my land is 7.94 feet noted by a surveyor on a Certificate of Elevation form.
In layman's terms, that is 7 feet and how many inches? or how much of an inch is it short of 8 feet? or 7.94 feet is 7 foot and 11 inches?
Don't know how to convert 7.94 feet into feet and inches. I know 7.94 feet is .06 short of 8 feet. It is .06 feet the thickness of a credit card, two credit cards, 10 playing cards.
An example would help. Maybe something like 7 feet 11 7/8 inches.
7.94 feet is 7 feet plus 0.94 feet.
0.94 feet is $12\times 0.94=11.28$ inches.
Since $0.28\times 32\approx 9$ we can say 7.94 feet is $$7\,'11{\textstyle\frac{9}{32}}\!"$$
This means your land is 8 feet minus $\frac{23}{32}$ of an inch.
If you're only looking for the nearest $\frac{1}{16}$ of an inch, it's $$7\,'11{\textstyle\frac{1}{4}\!"}$$ which is 8 feet minus $\frac{3}{4}\!"$.